Chapter 2

And here's the second part. Another old bit but something else incase anybody is interested. Also if anyone is interested DRAGON AGE! Again, this is another long one as it's for a proposed novel I've been slacking on for a long time. Enjoy :)

Chapter 2


Manticore


Saritha awoke for a brief moment to unfamiliar surroundings, the soft beep of a life support machine, the dripping of a tap, pattering feet. “The Kortai is our last hope,” she whispered to the empty room.
*
“Jump to light speed, Karl, now or we all get blown to hell!” a young woman shouted from her chair, mashing buttons at a console and looking at the radar screens in front of her.
“I’m trying to get the damn thing going,” Karl shouted back, a gruff looking man in his early thirties, “I think they hit the damn post light engine after we passed that last asteroid.” The ship rocked around as they were hit again by laser fire, from their adversary.
“Julia, can you do anything?” the young woman shouted again, touching even more buttons, sending the ship arcing away from an oncoming fighter. The hunted spacecraft, weaving between a pair of giant rocks in the ocean of stars, was badly damaged. Although the vessel was small and speedy, they were under attack and weren’t faring so well. Even smaller, one man fighters, sped around them, firing from insane angles, landing hits upon the deflector shield, slowly draining it’s power. A small fighter crashed into the port side asteroid, setting off a chain explosion, destroying the huge meteors, ravaging the vessels flying within their vicinity.
Further back in the cramped confines of the ship, a tall, blonde girl was picking herself up off the floor, chestnut overalls and face covered in grime and looking quite a mess. She was tinkering with a panel filled with wires, sparks flying everywhere. “Just one more minute!” Julia yelled back.
“You said that five minutes ago, damn you!” Karl roared from his console, “We can’t hold up much longer.” Another blast rocked the ship, sending Julia flying to the floor once again.
“Listen Julie, we can’t take much more. Just jump anywhere. We can always get to Kantara later, but not if we’re dead.” The woman piloting the ship was getting drastic, flying the ship through a group of oncoming fighters and upward to the surface of an asteroid. Craters and ravines littered the giant rock and picking one at random, she threw the ship down into one. She span the ship wildly into a valley, bumping a fighter into the canyon wall. The explosion shook the valley, knocking boulders loose, starting a rockslide in their wake. “Julia! I can’t keep this up much longer!”
“Almost done,” Julia yelled over the sound of laser fire in the distance. Grabbing two wires, she twisted the split ends together, creating yet more sparks. “Just two more minutes.”
The ship rocked again, and a panel behind Karl exploded in a plume of smoke. “Shields down! God damn it we’re screwed!” He jumped to his feet and started batting his jacket on the fire, “Julia, I’m sorry I forgot your birthday. And darling, I’m sorry I forgot our anniversary…again. If we get out of this I promise to do all the cooking and laundry for the rest of our lives. I promise to spend the rest of my days, to do nought but give you pleasure.”
“We’re about to die and all you can do is think about food and sex. I’d rather you stop whining right now, but I’ll take whatever I can get. Now shut up while I try to navigate these exceedingly treacherous passes!” The pilot screamed at Karl, all the while swinging the ship into dangerous bends and impossible overlapping ravines, trying to shake the much smaller fighters behind. All over the asteroid, small ships flew about, attempting to destroy the elusive prey.
Julia scrabbled to her feet again, and almost fell into Karl, who was just putting the fire out with an extinguisher, spraying white smoke everywhere. Plunging her hand back into the wires, she grabbed two more split ends and with her other hand grabbed a third. Twisting the three together as hard as she could resulted in a single spark. She looked at the panel, bewildered, before issuing a hard kick. “Work Damn You!” she screamed and the panel exploded, sending Julia flying into the wall behind.
“Julia!” shouted Karl, to his floored sister, as his console lit up and a few resounding beeps emanated from the panel she had been mending. He rushed from her side and slid into the chair, looking at the screens. “Weapons online, shields are back up, the hyperdrive’s on! Where to?” Karl yelled to the cockpit.
“Anywhere,” the pilot yelled, pulling the ship up and out of the ravine and away from the asteroid, “Just get us the hell out of here!”
Karl started punching in keys on the hyperdrive console, and the ship buzzed into life. All around the enemy were firing upon the ship, as they tried to make their escape. A loud whirring sound came from the panel Julia had been fixing and the ship shot through a violet hole in the black, away from the pursuing vessels.
*
“Where in the Holy Emperor’s name did they go!” roared Admiral Fazon, charging across the bridge of the OSS Reaper, throwing any soldier stupid enough to get in his way to the floor, his one good eye blazing with a fire deep within, ripping their way across the faces of the subordinates rallying around their master.
“They appear to have jumped to post light, sir,” a navigational personnel answered.
“I can see that, you blithering imbecile. Where have they gone?” the admiral roared, striking the man across the face with the back of his large, gloved fist.
“I am afraid I don’t know, sir,” the soldier answered timidly, holding his hand to his check, already turning purple “It would appear they do not know either, sir. A blind jump. I could try tracking them by their trail, sir?”
“Put it this way, soldier, if you don’t, I will make it my personal mission to make your short life as immeasurably painful as possible, and your family’s lives immeasurably hard, and any friends of yours who happen to see me, will be struck down where I see them. Do we understand each other?” Fazon looked into the young man’s face, fear oozing from him like sweat.
“P,p,p,p,perfectly, my Lord Fazon.”
“You will all die if they are not found,” Said Admiral Fazon, stalking to the window, and gazed out upon the scene of destruction, his blind eye staring unfalteringly, “This I swear in the name of the Emperor.” His troops ran to their stations in a panic, bumping into one another in their rush to do his bidding. The decimated remains of one of his battle cruisers, wallowed toward the asteroid field, exploding across the fractured hull. “You shall pay Kantaran brats. I will break you all in two, then enslave your miserable planet.”
*
“Julia,” Karl said softly to his sister as she started coming around on the floor where she had fallen, “Are you okay?”
Julia shook her head from side to side, then rubbed her eyes with her be-gloved hands. “Where are we? Have they got us? Are we dead?” she sounded even younger than she actually was, only sixteen and caught up in a huge mess with the crew of her ship. Not her ship precisely, but she was the navigator of the Shark, a Kantaran vessel on the run from the Operon.
“No, sis,” Karl smiled sweetly, “Charmai’s piloting and your engineering got us through it. We’re still post light, I figure we should put some distance between us before we drop out. Wasn’t it fun though!”
“You can’t call almost getting us all killed fun, you Melar crazed, junkie fool!” the pilot sneered at Karl, coming down the main chamber of the Shark. Her dark, earthy skin and her curly, black hair glistened with sweat, from the fear of capture, the effort of escape.
“C’mon Charmai, honey,” Karl laughed, “You can’t expect me to just do nothing when that faggot Fazon called you a banged up slut, now can you.”
“Well next time, wait until I’m actually at the wheel before you take pop shots at an Operon battle cruiser. Do you even consider what they’d do to us if we were caught? I’d be a banged up whore then. So would you. You better go make some dinner and do the dirty laundry, before I kick your ass from here to the Emperor’s private quarters!” Charmai didn’t look like she was kidding.
“Whoa there!” Karl protested, “That was panic talking. I thought we were gonna die! You can’t expect me to..”
“No Karl, I don’t expect you to keep your promise. After all you are a man…barely,” she gave Karl a knowing look, with a raised eyebrow, “Now get to the canteen and make us some grub, seeing as you nearly got us killed!”
“But…”
“I agree with Charmai, Karl. I could do with some food after the shock I’ve just had,” Julie batted her eyelids at him. Karl looked at the two women, “Please.”
“Oh…alright. But only because you said please,” Karl grumbled.
“You’ll do it or you’ll have to piss sitting down for a month,” Charmai put in, not a hint of jokiness in her voice.
Karl stood up and walked off to the crew quarters, further in the back of the ship, all the while mumbling something about ‘never working with damn women again’ and ‘that damn time of the month’. “Are you okay now, Julie?” Charmai asked, putting a hand to her forehead.
“Well I’ve felt better, but then again, I ain’t ever taken a twenty thousand volt shock to the chest before,” Julia giggled, then began to laugh quite raucously, “I suppose under the circumstances, I feel wonderful.” She got to her feet, with some help from Charmai, and wandered to the navigation console. “Whoa! Where the hell did we jump, we better drop soon. I think we left our galaxy.”
“What?” Charmai exclaimed, looking over Julia’s shoulder. According to the hyperdrive console they had travelled two thousand light years, and were moving further every second. “What the hell happened? What did you do to the post light engine back there?”
“I just bypassed a few systems. I think,” Julia began to suck her finger, looking from the console, to the panel she had repaired and back again, “Whatever I did, we should drop out of post light speed. If we’ve left the Chimaera Galaxy, we could end up pretty far from home. If the light drive doesn’t do what its doing now once we repair the ship, it could take us years to get home.”
“Permission to drop granted.”
“Aye aye, Captain.”
“Don’t call me that,” Charmai told Julia, who started giggling. She began punching in keys on the console and the ship rocked slightly as they dropped out of post light speed. The two women looked across the monitors of the console. “Where the hell are we?” Charmai exclaimed, eyes running across the screens and controls before her, “And why are there Operon cruisers orbiting that planet?”
“It seems to be that we’re in the Manticore Galaxy,” Julia said. Charmai, who looked more than a little puzzled, urged her on, “Newly discovered galaxy, found about three years ago. That planet is Terra, only human planet found so far. Apparently there is more than one sentient species there. Don’t you watch the news?” Julia looked to Charmai, who just shrugged.
“I never do. It’s all Operon lies and propaganda,” the older woman protested.
“True, but occasionally there is a gem or two worth hearing about,” Julia spoke while fiddling with the controls some more. “Her we are, Terra. Some guy, called Garelmar, discovered this place. Said it was full of psychics. Can you imagine, psychics. They’re extinct almost everywhere. We could sure use one on this bag of bolts.”
“That’ll be why the Operon are here then, ‘Come join our free republic. We’ll protect you from all your enemies and make your lands rich and fertile.’ Please! We should head somewhere else for repairs.”
“Weren’t you listening,” Julia asked, “This is the ‘only’ planet anyone has found in this galaxy with any sentient life. It’s the only place that could possibly repair the ship. And I mean possibly. They haven’t even developed any planetary defences by the looks of things.”
“Can’t we do it ourselves?” Charmai asked, already knowing the answer.
“No way. Couldn’t do it even if we had the supplies,” admitted Julia glumly, scanning the planet, “Most of the systems are fried and I need to look over the engine to find out if we can get back to Chimaera once it’s been repaired.”
“How long should it take?”
“Day? Two tops. That’s if we can get a few mechanics down there. Otherwise…a week, maybe ten days. I haven’t seen the full extent of the damage yet.”
“Well you sort out a suitable place to land and I’ll go check on Karl.”
“Sure thing, boss.”
Charmai left the console and the golden haired beauty to her musing and considerations, heading back to the crew’s quarter and the canteen. The Kortai Shark wasn’t a huge ship, but she owned it. More than five years at the pilot school in Farellia, on the planet of Kantara, and six more smuggling for an inter-stellar drug baron and she finally had her own ship and a legitimate business. Sure she stole from the Operon Empire, but those at war with the Operon considered it a job. The Shark was given to her by that drug baron, a shekk by the name of Dyrell Kynspor, for excellent service. He told her to keep flying as well as she did for him and the empire would be brought to it’s knees.
She’d been raised on a non empire planet by a father who hated the Operon for taking away his wife and two sons. When she was fifteen, he died on an attack upon an Operon outpost near her hometown, Palmera. Ever since she had been piloting and helping to liberate people from the Operon, hoping to avenge her father’s death by freeing Kantara. Now she was twenty eight and still no nearer her goal, perhaps even further from it than ever. No matter how much she stole, how many people they freed from the clutches of the Operon, new planets fell beneath the Emperor’s hand, increasing his hold on the three galaxies, four now that they were expanding into the newly discovered ‘Manticore’.
She entered the kitchen and there stood Karl, her life partner. Karl Ander was a pilot at her school, a few years above her, and they had met on a field exercise. After they both crash landed and spent more than a week making there way home, they grew to depend on each other and became ‘good friends.’ When he joined the Kantaran rebels at the end of his schooling, Karl promised to meet her after she graduated. Graduation came, but Karl didn’t and she got a job with Dyrell on the planet Llalamar, as a courier. After a few years, she was told what he did and was promoted to his pilot. Four years later, when she got the Shark, she returned to Kantara, only to be attacked by an Operon cruiser. Two of her four crew died in the firefight, and she was trying to escape when rebel ships attacked the Operon. Karl led the fighters and once they all escaped, she joined the rebels and Karl promised never to leave her side.
She couldn’t remember why she even considered having him back, but they proved to be the perfect team. Later, when Kantara was overrun, he insisted they rescue his kid sister, Julia, from his home. On their escape, Julia proved herself as an excellent mechanic, and a damn good job too as the rest of the crew were killed when some power conduits exploded. That was two years ago, and they’d been on the run ever since. Making small raids on the Operon ships and trying to help any who resisted. Now, Charmai and her crew were trying to find the rebels who had fled Kantara, with no luck.
It seemed like an age ago, and they had all changed. Julia was now taller than Karl, making him the shortest on the Shark. His face had become a little scarred, but he now wore a beard to cover the majority of it, but she still loved him. Even at thirty two, his black hair was showing grey, and his muscular strength wasn’t exactly that of Mr. Universe. But he was so stubborn and funny, and though she hated to admit it, reliable, she wondered what she’d do without him.
“How’s the food coming along, Karl.”
“Oh, so she shows her face,” He said sarcastically, “First she abuses me, then treats me like a slave, then abuses me again…fine darling. Should be ready in a few minutes.” He smiled a warm, open smile, “So, where are we, I felt us drop from post?”
“Bit of a problem there,” Charmai winced, “We’re in a different galaxy. Julie thinks she’s done something to the post light drive. We’re going to have to land on a planet for repairs. Full of sentients, and psychics apparently.”
“Sounds nice. What about the OP?” he asked sardonically.
“Another problem there. Seems they’re making a hostile take-over of the planet, and we can’t land anywhere else because there’s no more sentient life in this galaxy, or so some crackpot says.”
“Oh great. I’m sorry I asked.”
The intercom crackled into life and Julia began speaking, “This an announcement on flight one-o-one to Terra. We shall be landing at Candor in Mysidia in approximately thirty two minutes. Repairs will take two days, thanks to the lovely people at the Candori Gateway to the Beyond. Thank you for travelling with the Kortai Shark.”
“Well, looks like we’re going to see some people,” Charmai winked, “I’d better go freshen up. Can’t have the captain seen like this.”
*
The medical wing of the ST, enveloped in the darkness of early dusk, was deserted and still. Not a single sound penetrated the blank, white halls. Like a maze of disinfected corridors, solemnly waiting to encapsulate disease in a deathly grip and dispel all infection from the student populace of the college. Well past the end of the day, all doors were locked, not only keeping intruders out, but patients in. The infirmaries lay to the west side of the college, close to the forests, so the bed ridden could be granted bird song, in the late morning hours. This night however, the sanctity of the infirm, was to be broken.
“Look, Egar,” Mera yelled at the red headed shroud in the darkness, fury flying, like shuriken, from her tongue, “I’m grateful you came along, but if all you can do is moan about getting caught and spending the night in jail, I’m leaving you here. We’re going to find Sari and you could at least try enjoying yourself.” The pair were dressed entirely in black, skulking across the least secure area around the college, the forest on the west side of the grounds. An owl watched the display from on high, before leaping into flight, worrying all manner of forest vermin as it flew, like a spectre, across the canopies above.
“I’m not moaning,” Egar complained, putting on the face of a child about to throw a major temper tantrum, “I’m just saying, if we’re caught we won’t see Sari for a few days.”
“Do you wanna see her or not,” Mera said, stopping and turning to Egar, who almost walked clean into her, while planting balled fists on her hips.
“Course I do,” Egar shrugged, trying to avoid Mera’s scowl burning a hole in his face, “It’s just…”
“Good. Well if you shut up and help, we’ll get there a lot quicker. Now, pass me the wire cutters.”
Grudgingly, Egar reached under his cowl, and produced a pair of wire cutters, small enough to fit in the palm of a hand. “Surely this is classed as vandalism? Or wanton destruction? Are you sure we aren’t breaking the law?”
“Oh live a little, ya wimp,” Mera barked, “Honestly, you’d think you’d never broken into somewhere before.” The two criminals, made their way through the trees again, disturbing a small grey fox, that decided the owl fluttering overhead, was a bit of a bother to try and catch.
Egar looked around nervously from beneath his hood, staring at all the pairs of eyes watching him from everywhere in the darkness. “Are you sure these woods are safe?” he asked Mera nervously.
“I never said the woods were safe. Why? Scared?” Inclined Mera, giving him a sly wink, “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you from any big, nasty shrews that try to get you.” She laughed aloud at herself, scaring away a blue, nut squirrel from the branches overhead, into the waiting clutches of the owl.
They broke into a run, crouched slightly, and became near invisible, if not totally silent. The pair ran for the best part of fifteen minutes, Egar falling to his face more than once, which made Mera kick him a few times in annoyance, before finally nearing the edge of the forest and the start of the ST compound. They stopped, crouched beside a tree, watching the walls for security guards, listening for any possible assailants that would keep them from their crime’s bounty. With none in sight, Mera ran to the fence, which was more there to keep animals away than intruders, and began clipping away the links in the fence.
“Mera!” Egar whispered to her, as loudly as he could, waving frantically to the man walking around the corner, towards where she knelt. Seeing the guard, she rolled flat to the ground, and began crawling away from the fence, closer to the encapsulating bleakness of the wood. The guard whistled nonchalantly to himself, as he slowly strode around the bend and along the edge of the building, occasionally stopping to flash his torch across the face of the wood, narrowly missing Egar’s face twice. After a brief moment, stretching and scratching his unmentionables, for a little too long in Mera’s opinion, the guard carried on his route, out of sight of the fence. Mera lay still for a few moments, looking back to Egar for confirmation of their safety, before crawling back to the fence and snipping the last few links away. She grasped the large circle of wire she had clipped away, leaning it beside the fence, then clambered through the hole, checking the other side for activity, before waving for Egar to follow.

Sweet smells of medicinal substances drifted around the cold interior of Saritha’s room, in the medical facility of the ST. A low, quiet beep sounded every few seconds, from the machines she was hooked up to, and occasionally she would snort, while rolling around fitfully, in her sleep. The door creaked open and Mera peered around the edge, before rushing off again. Something, made of glass, smashed in the distance, then footsteps came running to the door. “We should be quiet, in case that bitch nurse comes back,” Mera spoke quietly to Egar, as the pair brought a chair into the room each, and sat beside their friend. “Honestly, you’d think people would have the decency to sleep when you’re trying to break into somewhere.” She looked at Saritha, lying upon the bed, breathing slowly and deeply, setting the chair beside her bed. “So what actually happened? I heard she went nuts and started screaming in the middle of a lecture.”
“It wasn’t that so much,” Egar said, looking at Saritha’s pale face, “She sorta drifted off when we were in a lecture with that weird doctor guy. I prodded her, but she didn’t respond. When I asked if she was okay, she screamed and started saying something about ‘them killing us all’.” He looked awful, like he’d been worrying about her most of the day. His hair was quite messy and stuck upon his pale skin in places.
“I got quite worried when she didn’t meet me by the fountain at eleven,” Mera whispered, “Then I heard some of the popular girls, they were saying Sari’s a nutter. It was Jarra Maelbare and Fay Effanni. I suppose I shouldn’t have hit Jarra, not seeing as what’s happened. It wasn’t her fault.” She burst into tears and Egar grabbed her and held her while his friend cried into his shirt. They sat together like that for a long time, holding each other in sorrow for their friend.
“She’ll be alright Mera,” Egar reassured her, “She always bounces back.” He brushed a trembling hand through her shoulder length, jade hair and rubbed her back softly. “Like when she got caught in the energy cooler at the Gateway, or when she jumped into that gang of speeder bike freaks and beat up three guys. We just have to give her a little longer.” Mera cried herself to sleep in the arms of Egar and he waited, stroking her hair and holding her close, until his eyes could stay open no longer, and he drifted off.
*
A lone ship, not very big, a small transport possibly, descended into the atmosphere of Terra. Saritha watched from the clouds, gaze transfixed on the vessel as it fell towards the spaceport of Candor. She walked down an invisible staircase, following the ship to the ground. Leaping down, Saritha looked across the vessel, taking it in. She had seen it before. Where had she seen it? They came to the ground, in the spaceport’s west side, above a cloud of steam, landing gears easing weight on the hard surface. “The Kortai Shark,” Saritha said to herself. “The Kortai Shark?” She tried to get her mind around the words. “The…Kortai…Shark. The…
*
…Kortai Shark,” Saritha said as she sat up, straight in her bed, looking at the wall perpendicular to herself. She looked around the room in a panic, wires in her arms, wearing a white shift, ‘Where am I?’ The life support machines, the heart monitors, two people sat together beside the bed. Mera and Egar? “What happened to me?”
Mera’s eyes opened and she looked at her friend through groggy eyes. “Sari? You’re awake,” Mera said excitedly, “We’ve been waiting with you all night.”
“Where am I…I mean we. Where are we?”
“Don’t you remember? You went nuts in a lecture,” Mera peered at her friend cautiously, “Started screaming and passed out. Right next to Egar. He’s been scared out of his skin for you.”
Saritha looked at the sleeping Egar, sitting on the chair, with his head hanging at a funny angle. “I think I remember. Doctor Auberg?” she puzzled about her thoughts, trying to recall what had happened in the engineering lesson. Thought skittered through her mind, brushing her memory, yet not for long enough to be brought to the surface, “I remember the hologram. He showed us some of the Operon ships. They…they…”
*
Burning fire, destroying Terra, ravaging the land, killing, maiming all upon the surface. “Give it to us.” A voice roared across the fields of death. “Give it NOW!” The ships descended upon the world, bringing the merciless wrath of torture with it. Slavery, depravity, pestilence. War. Soldiers in red, blood. Soldiers, taking all. Pillaging, raping, spreading their disease to the pure. Taking from the kind, butchering the light.
*
Saritha grasped her head, seemingly in pain, face wracked by an unseen agony, burning the flesh from her bones. “Get out of my head!” she screamed, waking the sleeping Egar with a start, Mera flinging herself back and away in disbelief and shock, fell from her chair, landing on the ground in a heap.
“Sari! Sari can you hear me?” Egar shouted, grabbing and gently shaking her from the nightmare vision. Her eyes swung upon Egar, disillusioned, wide with fear. “Sari, are you alright?”
She panted heavily, closing her eyes. “What is happening to me?” she sobbed into her hands, “Am I going crazy?” She looked into Egar’s face, her bright, emerald eyes full of tears, “What is going on?”
“I don’t know Sari,” Egar owned up, “I honestly don’t know. Why do you keep…keep doing that. What is going on in your head?” He looked at her, his eyes looking far less stern than his face.
“Don’t ask her such a stupid question Egar, you fool,” Mera leapt to her feet and stood between Egar and Sari, “She doesn’t know what’s happening, or weren’t you listening?” She pushed Egar down into his chair, rounding on Sari, “Are you okay? No, don’t speak. Would you like a drink of water? I’m sure that’ll clear your head,” Mera turned to Egar, “Go get Sari a drink, I’ll stay with her.” Egar stared at Mera for a moment, his eyes showing a flaming anger. “Please Egar.” His eyes changed a little, surprise?
“Okay,” he said quietly, subserviently.
“Thank you, Egar,” Mera acceded.
Egar turned and left the room, not sparing a glance for the two girls. Once the door closed, Mera got on the bed with Saritha, and held her in her arms, the pair sharing a loving embrace. “I’m scared Mera.”
“Me too Sari. Me too.”

Saritha sipped at the cool water, easing the liquid down her throat, soothing her dry mouth. The girls sat together on the bed, with Egar relaxing on the chairs he had only an hour before been sleeping upon. A skeleton staff had started to enter the ST, preparing the college for another day. Confusion had erupted when a nurse appeared to check on Saritha, several minutes previous.

“How did you get in here. And what are you doing on Miss Bellion’s bed?”
“We’ve been here all night, miss. We fell asleep waiting for Sari to wake up,” Mera lied excellently, after the amount of trouble she had got into, she needed to.
“You let us come in,” Egar bluffed emphatically, “before you shut up for the evening. I’m surprised you don’t recall.”
The nurse looked at the pair, a worried look creasing her smooth forehead, “Well, why are…”
“Sari’s feeling much better now,” said Mera, wrapping an arm around her friend’s shoulder.
“Yes. I asked Mera to sit with me awhile,” Saritha put in, grabbing Mera in much the same fashion, “Could I have my clothes back soon. I’d like to get some food.”
“Well….I’ll just have check with the matron. I’ll have some porridge sent round,” the nurse waddled out of the door, and the rooms occupants burst into laughter, falling about with the ease with which they’d conned the nurse.

“Are you feeling better now? Do you know what was wrong?” Mera asked, a little nervous her friend would lapse into another fit.
“Remember,” Saritha said quaintly, “I told you I’ve been having…dreams?” The pair nodded, “I had one in the lecture, when I saw the ship on the holo projector.”
“But you were awake. I was sat right with you,” Egar acclaimed.
“I know, but it clouded over me. It was like a vision.” Saritha brushed a hand across her face, “The Operon are here to destroy us.”
“How do you know that? We don’t even know what they’ve come for,” Mera looked around the room, “Well they ain’t come for us yet so we might get lucky.”
“I’ve had more dreams though. I think we’re in real danger.”
“But why do you think that?” Egar asked, “What do you see?”
“I don’t want to…don’t know if I can…it’s not good. It feels as if…as if I’ve been on the ships. Feels like…”
“Feels like you can hear the thoughts of the passengers. Can feel what they want, what they need. You feel as if you are standing upon the bridges’ of the ships all at once and are at one with their intent. Is that what you feel?”
“Doctor Auberg?” Saritha exclaimed, disparately staring at the black clad man in the doorway, “What are you doing here? How do you? How can you?”
“I know what you see,” he spoke softly, his voice caressing her ears, “Don’t you understand yet? Don’t you feel it?”
“What are you talking about, you quack?” Mera shouted, squaring up to him, “How did you get in here?”
“Well I didn’t break in, did I, Mera Rendar?”
Mera looked at Auberg, “How did you…”
“Know your name? Know that you and master Sandrelous broke into the college?” he stared Mera down, as she backed away, falling onto the chair next to Egar. “Don’t worry, no one knows of your crime…”
“I told you we were breaking the law,” Egar scolded.
“…and I shan’t tell.” He walked into the room and stood beside the bed, “Now, are you feeling better, Saritha?” Auberg felt a hand against her forehead.
She grabbed his hand from her. “How do you know this? How can you? Tell me.”
“Much better,” Auberg said, “If a little defiant. You should already know,” He turned away, walking to the door and closing it, “You, Saritha, are a psychic.”